Aadish keluskar’s movie Jaon Kahan Bata Ae Dil, was recently showcased at MAMI. The director speaks with SHALINI SAKSENA about his favourite films and what he considers to be honest work

What is your film Jaon Kahan Ae Dil about?

It is an anti-romantic movie. It takes the conventional genre of romance without any filters. The couple in the movie talks about things what I have heard from people in real life. It is a kind of film that Bollywood has been talking about making but never did due to budget constrains and industry concerns. The movie explores how deep and dark relationships can get.

Why such a realistic portrayal of romance?

There has been under representation of factors that exist in the society. Each filmmaker can come up with an explanation why he chose to tell one side. Cinema, according to me, at the end of the day is a medium for the masses. Inspite of calling it commercial cinema, we don’t show working population or talking about politics. if we want to talk about masses, we should be able to do so

What are the challenges in making such films?

The challenge or constrain is to keep the movie within a budget where the people involved don’t suffer losses since one is taking such a big risk. next, comes working within that amount and develop an OS for that particular film.

How does a director then make money and ensure that masses watch it?

There is no way that one can make masses watch a film. We have a population of over 1.3 billion. In theatres, around 3-4 crore people watch it; out of this 35-40 per cent are satellite subscribers, digital is even less. So 50 per cent of India is any which way not watching movies. That leaves 50 per cent. Even here, the kind of noise that needs to be made depends on marketing. People go and watch films that are recommended. In this whole scenario, independent films are way below. How much time it will take for films to go viral can’t be predicted. Therefore, directors like me depend on the digital space.

Why do such movies do well at the digital platform or film festival circuit?

There is diversity in independent cinema. When we see the history of Hindi cinema — art or parallel cinema — there were different school of thoughts. Shyam Benegal school of thought was very different. Salim-Javed were writing films that were very different from the kind of movies that were made in the 60s like Deewar and Zanjeer. If a main stream film is spending Rs 6-8 crore on marketing for a nation-wide release, the independent cinema budget is way below; in fact there is no comparison and hence not be able to do so well.

Does this mean there is some hope?

I don’t seen any hope. I don’t want to be a pessimistic but for me to see any hope, I have to be able to see some changes but that is not happening at present.

How do you showcase honest work through a film?

One has to be clear why one is making it in the first place. If it for the audience, then you have to make sure that this is the effect you want to portray. Then there are kind of films where the makers make the kind of movie that they want and let the audience decide it for themselves.

Define good cinema.

Something that makes you think for more and feel for more. Right now, it doesn’t do this.

How do such stories/scripts come to you?

Till now, I observe things around me without any direction in my mind. This gets accumulated in my mind. Then one fine day, it explodes and comes out in a story format. Whether this will work in the future can be predicted.

All time favourite films.

At present, they are Ardh Satya, Pyaasa, Naya Daur, Satya and Black Friday.